


the ambition of a raven

by vartamin



Series: Young Justice Oneshots [3]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/F, Falling In Love, First Meetings, Fluff, Love at First Sight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 18:14:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18970447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vartamin/pseuds/vartamin
Summary: this is a world of magic - of mind-bending, world-altering magic - and Artemis still can't help tripping over herself and putting her foot in her mouth whenever she runs into the pretty ravenclaw with the dark hair and the sky blue eyes.





	the ambition of a raven

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: this work has gone largely unedited since 2016 because I can't bring myself to look back at how bad my writing was. tread ahead with caution, I was young.
> 
> (originally posted on tumblr for snaibsel week I believe?)

Artemis came to with a jerk and stumbled out of her bed, catching her feet in the sheets she had unwittingly pushed onto the floor. She had spent the night trying to get a new transfiguration charm to work, only going to bed when the sun came up and she could barely keep her eyes from drooping closed and now, she was late. 

In her rush to gather her things she neglected to put her hair in its usual low ponytail, her blonde strands flowing gracefully behind her despite her sharp, sleep ridden movements as she left the Slytherin dormitories.

She ran down the long, winding hallways, stumbling over her feet at abrupt corners. She entered her potions class panting, to the beady eyes of the students and professor, who only continued on with the lesson in a bored drawl.

And so she went from class to class and cursed under her breath whenever her hair fell into her eyes while she was working, tucking it once again behind her ear, until it was time to head towards the banquet hall for lunch. She rushed from the classroom, hastily fumbling with her books and hoping to grab a hair tie from her dorm before heading to eat.

She was once again running down the winding hallways of the Hogwarts Academy for Gifted Witches and Wizards, twisting and turning her way through the lunch crowd and around sharp corners when she knocked into someone. Long raven hair clouded her vision before they both went tumbling to the castle floor.

The first thing Artemis noticed when she sat up was that the girl she had accidentally crashed into was stunning. With dark hair spread out against the floor haphazardly, eyes like ocean waves, soft features as if molded by the hands of a skilled sculptor and the rosy pink of her cheeks against the porcelain of her skin, the biting insult Artemis had prepared died at the tip of her tongue.

The second thing she noticed was that she had landed quite literally on top of the girl and was sitting on her lap, straddling her hips with her hands placed on either side of the girl’s head. At this revelation Artemis’s mind came to a sudden halt, her body froze and she stuttered out an awkward apology with a heavy tongue, not moving from her spot on top of them.

The beautiful girl looked up at her curiously before her face dissolved into a sly smirk, the upturn of her lips tugging at the slow beat of Artemis’s heart.

“Well that's one way to get someone to fall for you, wanna try some others?” The ravenclaw said with a quirked eyebrow.

Artemis let out a guffaw, her heart stuttering to a standstill in her chest. A blush ran up her neck to heat her face and her arms were quite close to giving out, accidentally bringing her face closer to the other girl’s. Artemis stood up quickly and stumbled a few steps back before steadying herself and reaching a rough palm out to the ravenclaw.

The girl smiled slightly deviously at the offer and Artemis could feel a cold sweat begin to form near the back of her neck. She took Artemis’s outstretched hand and let herself be pulled up, making sure to clasp their fingers together and conveniently forget to let go. Artemis tried to blow the rebellious strands of hair out of her face and managed to make the ravenclaw laugh, covering her mouth with her hand as she let her fingers untwine from Artemis’s and brush it smoothly behind Artemis’s ear.

“See you around.” She said with a smile and a small tilt of her head before turning away and merging with the still-moving crowd.

A blush curled its way onto Artemis’s cheeks, strong and steady like the beat of her heart thrumming in her ears. She closed her eyes and smiled softly to herself, still caught on the feeling of slim fingers lingering around the shell of her ear as the girl disappeared into the throng of students on their way to lunch, raven hair and blue blazer blending into the crowd.

"What was that about?" A voice broke into her dazed silence, her tanned friend sporting his slytherin house colours grinned slyly at her side, with his black hair slicked back and his calculating blue eyes shifting away her surprised jump for future analyzation.

She scoffed, "None of your business, midget" pulling a squawk from the twerp beside her. She ignored the following stream of words, focusing intently instead on pushing back the red staining her cheeks and returning her heartbeat to normal from it's marathon-like pace. 

"One centimetre! I grew a whole centimetre last night! I am not a midget!" He huffed out before smiling fondly at the blush she was still actively trying to push back; falling into step besides the blonde as they walked towards the banquet hall.    
  
  


 

¿?¿

 

  
The next time they crossed paths was three weeks later down by the lake on winter vacation. Artemis was loitering near the shore, her robe shrugged off and lying under a tree whose bare branches stretched over the dark water. Thinking about her home, her family. With her sister gone off to god knows where, her estranged father getting up to god knows what and her mother in a penitentiary, there was really nowhere else for her to go. 

She sighed and kicked a stray patch of dirt into the lake, watching the ripples spread over the water. The small crunch of the ground on the path behind her alerted her to company, she snapped her head around and came face to face with piercing blue eyes and rosy cheeks.    
  
"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone was here." The newcomer bit her lip nervously, her hair floating gently in the cold winter breeze.   
  
_ Artemis was entranced _ , eyes catching on the cherry red of her lips.    
  
"Ah, it's okay." She winced at the gruffness of her voice staining the crisp air between them before clearing her throat and awkwardly tucking the long hair blowing in her face behind her ear.   
  
"Why are you here?" She asked abrasively and the girl's eyebrows shot up, a look of distant surprise flitting across her face before she calmed her features into a mask of indifference while Artemis's mind stumbled over words and thoughts as she realized her grievous mistake.   
  
"I just, I meant at school. Most people go home for vacation." She continued quickly, her stomach turning in on itself. She stared stubbornly at the ground in front of her, prepared to face the deserved wrath of the beautiful girl standing before her.    
  
Instead the ravenclaw giggled at her awkwardness, her hand coming up to cover her mouth and the sound brought Artemis's head up. Her laugh chimed through the biting air and replaced the cold sting of winter with a dizzying warmth starting from her heart and running through her limbs, taking her breath away. She ducked her head again and shifted her feet in the dirt. 

"You're cute."    
  
Artemis's foot froze mid shift and her heart ran off with her lungs, beating rapidly in an unsteady, faltering rhythm.    
  
"In a socially awkward kind of way, but cute nonetheless."    
  
Artemis gaped, her head raising from it's determined stare at the dirt in front of her with her mouth hanging open. Her face inflamed and the blush travelled down her neck and up to the tips of her ears. The beautiful girl smiled at her, the corners of her eyes crinkling.    
  
"Your hair is down." Was the next remark to come out of the decidedly vixen-like mouth, the words hanging in the air between them.

Artemis's hand flew to her hair, mind going back to the hair tie left sitting in her trunk up in her dorm room. She'd foregone tying her hair up since they last saw each other, taking her advice without really paying it much attention. Letting her hair rest softly on her shoulders and fall gracefully down her back. 

She tried to come up with a response that wouldn't make her sound like she didn't quite understand how to converse amicably with people, fumbling over scathing insults in her mind to reach for something that wouldn't push this gorgeous creature away. 

“Yeah, it is.” _ Perfect. _

The conversation lulled and both of them fidgeted under the silence, shuffling feet and tugging at uniforms to fill it. Artemis let a sigh be pulled from her lungs, this wasn't going anywhere. She prepared to tell the girl she was going inside, if only to escape the heavy awkwardness when she spoke.

“I'm Zatanna,” she said lightly, eyeing her from under her lashes as if gauging her reaction, “do you… want to get something to eat with me? I'm starving.”

“Yeah,” Artemis responded, a smile of her own spreading onto her face, “that'd be nice.”

The girl, Zatanna, smiled back at her, a real smile this time, full and awestruck. Artemis couldn't help but admire her as her heart fluttered.

She could get used to this, to her.


End file.
